Real-Time Billing

Call Detail Record (CDR) systems have been around for years. But they’ve morphed rapidly to engage all aspects of a consumer’s holistic, digital life, such as interacting with family and friends, streaming video, and using smartphone apps. As mobile telecom companies have shifted to providing billing based on data usage, CDR systems have been supplanted by service-based routing and smart-routing equipment. No longer is it sufficient for a CDR system to capture only the number of minutes a user has spent on a particular activity and multiply it by a set rate to compute the user’s total charge. Today, telcos offer a myriad of complex and ever-changing pricing plans based on consumer usage and plan data such as whether it is a family or international plan and how much data is typically used. At the same time, providers must interact with users to monitor usage, provide overage alerts, and offer the option to buy additional services.